“Let the poor devil _eat_; allow him _that!_” “Curtail not our holiday Septembrisers of their fair proportion of fun.” “To those sentiments,” exclaimed Deputy Doublechin, “I most heartily respond!” * The Rev. R. C. Dillon (Lord Mayor's chaplain in 1826) published in 1830 a “Sermon on the evil of fairs in general, and Bartholomew Fair in particular.” Who would have thought that this pious functionary had been so great a foe to the fair? The following odd combinations occur in the title of a sermon published in 1734. “The deformity of sin cured; a sermon preached at St. Michael's Crooked Lane, before the Prince of Orange, (the Prince was not quite straight! ) by the Rev. J. Crookshanks. Sold by Matthew Denton at the Crooked Billet, near Cripplegate. ** A physician once observed that he could tell of what country a man was by his complaint. If it laid in the head, he was a Scotchman; if in the heart, he was an Irishman; if in the stomach, he was an Englishman. And as the worshipful deputy's responses, six days out of the seven, were _wet_ ones, the punch and a glee went merrily round. Punchinello's a jolly good fellow! Making us merry, and making us mellow. In the bowl, in the fair too, a cure for dull care too; All ills that we find flesh or skin and bone heir to! Verily he is the spirit of glee, So in him drink to him with three times three! Hip! hip! once, twice, thrice, and away! Punchinello, _mon ami! a votre santé_. CHAPTER VII. |And so, Mr. M'Sneeshing, you never heard of the ingenious _ruse_ played off by Monsieur Scaramouch?” said the Lauréat, as he refreshed his nostrils with a parsimonious pinch from the mull of sandy-poled Geordie, conchologist and confectioner, from the land o' cakes. And while Deputy Doublechin was busy admiring a grotesque illumination in Uncle Timothy's _Merrie Mysteries_, Mr. Bosky favoured the company with THE UP-TO-SNUFF FRENCH SCARAMOUCH. Monsieur Scaramouch, sharp-set enough, At a Paris dépôt for tobacco and snuff, Accosted the customers every day With “_Pardonnez moi, du Tabac, s'il vous plâit!_” He look'd such a gentleman every inch, The Parisians all condescended a pinch; Which, taken from Bobadils, barbers, and beaux, Went into his _pocket_--instead of his _nose!_ Scaramouch sold, with a merry ha I ha! Ev'ry pinch to his friend, _le marchand de tabac_: Then buyer and seller the price of a franc To the _noses_ of all their contributors drank! From boxes supplies came abundant enough, He breakfasted, dined, and drank tea upon snuff!